30 MOST ICONIC PERFORMANCES BY REAL BANDS IN FICTIONAL FILMS

 

 

The 1980s were a golden age in regards to amazing real life musicians showing up as themselves on the silver screen. We’re talking scenes where fictional characters are in a club or at a concert and in the background some buzz-worthy musician is performing. Such performances are often superfluous to the plot, but add atmosphere to a scene or allow a director to show off his or her hip musical tastes. We have combed through decades of movie clips to highlight the 30 performances that were most iconic. To be clear, this isn’t about scenes featuring fictional bands or moments from music documentaries. This is a young Madonna performing “Crazy For You” as Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino dance for the first time in Vision Quest . Wilson Phillips singing “Hold On” at the wedding at the end of Bridesmaids while the cast mime along. David Hemmings wandering into a chaotic concert by The Yardbirds in swinging ’60s London in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up. An Old West version of ZZ Top in Back to the Future Part III. And Oingo Boingo performing “Dead Man’s Party” at a college party in Back to School. By Mark Redern

1. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in Wings of Desire (1987) Nick Cave’s appearance with his then new band, The Bad Seeds, in Wim Wender’s poetic meditation on what it means to be human, set against the landscape of a divided city that itself epitomized our best and worst selves—is so simpatico between director and rock star, that it’s at the very crux of the film’s action. The scene takes place at a concert after the angel Damiel (Bruno Ganz) has relinquished his wings—a moment marked in the film by going from monochrome to color. Shot initially with no dialogue or script, Wenders, inspired by the angels in Rainer Maria Rilka’s poetry, wanted the city of Berlin rather than any heavy-handed plot to inform the film. Cave, the personification of Berlin’s artistic underground at the time, belts the well-suited “From Her to Eternity” as the fallen angel encounters his true love for the first time, as a mortal. (Wings of Desire is available on Blu-ray and DVD via The Criterion Collection, www.criterion.com.) By Celine Teo-Blockey

2. Bauhaus in The Hunger (1983) Tony Scott’s feature length directorial debut, The Hunger, is a cult, gothic horror film starring the incomparable David Bowie as longtime companion of the equally iconic, Catherine Deneuve—a vampire who can grant her lovers eternal life but not eternal youth. The opening sequence is a studied exercise in ’80s horror cinema: macabre yet sleek. “Bela Lugosi’s dead,” drones Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy as the band performs the song of the same name while the über sexy vampires move in for their erotic, double kill, climaxing with blood-curdling monkey shrieks. The film begins magnificently, pity about its clumsy ending. Still, as key goth progenitors would cite Bowie’s “Starman” as the moment they took up their mantle, this opening scene would go down in history as giving name and shape to the new genre. By Celine Teo-Blockey

3. The Rave-Ups in Pretty in Pink (1986) We know the best musical performance in Pretty in Pink is actually Jon Cryer doing Otis Redding, but if we can all agree to eliminate obvious lip-synchers that top spot goes to L.A.-by-way-of-Pittsburgh rockers The Rave-Ups. Introduced to John Hughes by superfan Molly Ringwald, they were selected to perform two songs as the background to Andie, Blane, Duckie, and Iona’s outing at a club. Although the band never blew up like expected, their appearance in this core Brat Pack picture carved them out a little piece of ’80s immortality. By Austin Trunick

4. Siouxsie & The Banshees in Out of Bounds (1986) Nevermind that the movie itself is a real turkey, Out of Bounds features some great music. When Anthony Michael Hall unconvincingly turns into a Charles Bronson character to hunt down the drug lord who murdered his brother, his quest for vengeance takes him through some of L.A.’s hippest New Wave clubs, where we’re treated to a vintage performance of Siouxsie’s gothy pop hit “Cities in Dust” inside the famed and long-defunct Dirt Box pop-up music venue. By Austin Trunick

5. The Feelies in Something Wild (1986) The house band never gets any respect. Though appearing in damn near every second of the film’s 10-minute long high school reunion scene, The Feelies didn’t manage to make it onto Something Wild’s official soundtrack. It’s no matter though as the extended scene really needs to be viewed not just heard. The band plays covers of The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” and David Bowie’s “Fame.” The latter of which finds Jeff Daniels hilariously copping moves and busting them out on the dance floor with Melanie Griffith. But the movie’s indelible moment comes when the then little known Ray Liotta makes his first appearance on the screen to the beginning notes of the band’s own “Loveless Love.” By Mark Moody

6. David Bowie in Christiane F (1981), 7. Madonna in Vision Quest (1985), 8. The Yardbirds in Blow Up (1966), 9. Wilson Phillips in Bridesmaids (2011), 10. Alice In Chains in Singles (1992), 11. 5.6.7.8’s in Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), 12. Oingo Boingo in Back to School (1986), 13. My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult in The Crow (1994), 14. Jonathan Richman in There’s Something About Mary (1998), 15. Lou Reed in Faraway So Close (1993), 16. ZZ Top in Back to the Future Part III (1990), 17. Franz Ferdinand in 9 Songs (2004), 18. The Plimsouls in Valley Girl (1983), 19. Aerosmith in Wayne’s World 2 (1993), 20. Devo in Human Highway (1982), 21. Crime & the City Solution in Wings of Desire (1987), 22. Metric in Clean (2004), 23. Sparks in Rollercoaster (1977), 24. Kiss in Detroit Rock City (1999), 25. Strawberry Alarm Clock in Beyond The Valley of The Dolls (1970), 26. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in 9 Songs (2004), 27. Gwar in Empire Records (1995), 28. Circle Jerks in Repo Man (1984), 29. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in Clueless (1995), 30. The Blasters in Streets of Fire (1984) ■ 

UNDER THE RADAR